Star Wars: The Grey Vigil
by TheBlushingPilgrim
Summary: At the height of the Jedi Order, before the rise of the Empire, Jedi Master Johran was dispatched to the most isolated planet in the galaxy, chasing rumours of an ancient Sith Lord. His old padawan Quillian, now a master with an apprentice of his own, sets out to determine Johran's fate, and if possible, bring him back to civilisation.
1. Chapter One - The Dive

**Star Wars:**

 **The Grey Vigil**

 **Chapter One**

 **The Dive**

Johran ran. He ran as fast as his feet could propel him, kicking up dust and dry stones as he tore across the volcanic rock. The night was at its blackest, but still always glowing blood red in patches across the horizon, seas and craters of lava bleeding light into the night sky. Johran sprinted, following the line of a lava river and its weak red light through the canyons of grey and black stone, the only light in the darkness. He turned his head momentarily, and caught the angry cries of the mob on his heels. He couldn't tell how close they were getting.

Johran clambered up a boulder, porous rock bit into his palms, and within the black night he saw a cave entrance, dimly illuminating itself by the oozing magma within. He broke away from the path of the molten river, towards the cave. The cries of rage, voices festering with an inhuman bile, grew louder. Johran threw himself through the entrance, hopping down the incline of rock, deeper and deeper into the sweltering cave. Rounding a corner he jolted, hand digging into the curving wall, feet skidding to a halt and casting pebbles into a bubbling pit of lava, inches from his toes.

His breath heaved, trying to catch itself. Before him lay an underground lake of lava, the deadest of dead ends. The intense heat warmed the inside of his lungs, stifling his mind. His head whipped left and right in vain. Nowhere left to run. The screaming voices echoed off the cave entrance and down to him. He fumbled at his clothing. Bandages wound around his torso, neck and limbs, native clothing. They had failed to hide his identity. No reason to hide anything else, he thought. Johran pawed at his abdomen, dislodging the bandages there, and releasing the weighty object slung in the small of his back.

His stomach and waist now bare to the intense heat, Johran fished around in the bandages and pulled out the heavy object, gripping it in both hands. The sound of angry bare feet patting down the stone echoed down to Johran, and within moments they rattled around the corner, and he was faced with the heaving crowd. Gasping as they saw him, their cries were swallowed up in a moment and they slowed to a predator's crawl to stand in front of him, heads cocked, eyes fierce. Their numbers reached back up the stone and out of the cave, dozens and dozens of them, torches held aloft, weapons in hand, and their pallid grey faces staring with soot black eyes, darting from his face to the object in his hand.

Johran heard the scattered guttural sounds of their language, few words of which he understood, but he could feel their fear, and their anger, and the hundreds of murderous thoughts darting between them like a cloud of flies. Johran calmed himself, gripped the object with renewed focus, and flipped the activator button next to his thumb. The lightsaber's blade shot out of the hilt with a hiss, and the mob flinched, gasping and then muttering.

It hummed with fierce energy, the blade burning the colour of dark bronze, an orange almost as deep as the magma that sat bubbling behind him. Johran thought for a moment about the weapon in his hand, the rare crystal that gave it that unique colour. How it would be lost here, on a distant planet, forever. A lost relic. Just like him. The muttering became whispers. The anger subsided and the fear rose. Johran caught a word he recognised. Then again. And again.

"Jedi!" they began to mutter together, rising into a scream. "Jedi! JEDI!"

Weapons were levelled at Johran, a wall of spears and blaster tips creeping closer and closer towards him with the shuffling of bare feet on the rough rock. Johran gripped his saber tighter, gritting his teeth and with a heave, swung it through the wall of flesh in front of him. Screams of anger and pain echoed through the cave and out into the night, audible to every single one of the thousand creatures that now descended on the lone Jedi.

Coruscant was a better place to live if you had a speeder. You could transit straight from your apartment, along the skyways to your workplace and back again. You didn't have to step foot on the surface of the planet, all the way down there, in the dirt. You couldn't even see it from up there, in high society, Quillian Kogg contemplated. Luckier still, he thought, those on the ground couldn't see that far up. Quillian shifted his legs, the cackling and synthetic noises of the holoscreen snapping him out of his own thoughts. He always preferred the side boothes in these dive bars. It was never quiet, not even in the early hours, but it was _quieter_ back there.

He sat on the half-moon bench, feet up, occupying half the seats. He never wore his Jedi robes when he went bar crawling. Being seen here wasn't good for him, or the Order. Instead he kept to his half-tunic that only went so low as his knees, and an old disused flight jacket. Nobody suspected a Jedi would wear Bantha leather out in public. The look had the advantage of softening his age in onlookers' eyes. Despite achieving the age of forty, he still came across as an inherently youthful man, despite his short greying hair and the deepening lines of his welcoming face.

He kept his eye on a distant corner booth, as he had done all evening, peering through the thick blue smoke and ignoring the drunken laughter. That Trandoshan smuggler was still there, swilling his drinks and cackling like an idiot. Quillian hadn't caught his name yet, but patience wasn't known for getting quick results. As he peered through the haze of the bar, someone strolled in front of his table, blocking his view. Looking up with mild annoyance, he took in the simple Jedi robes, the beard and long hair before resting his gaze on the familiar nose and pronounced brow of an old friend.

"I hope this isn't how you spend most of your nights, Quill.' said Qui-Gon Jinn, those blue eyes betraying that kind smile.

"Not now you've blown my cover." Quill responded dryly. Qui-Gon rounded the table, sitting with deft grace on the bench opposite him. "I'm working." Quill added, slightly tense.

"The Trandoshan can wait." Qui-Gon reassured him. "The Council has something far more important and more urgent for you than a simple smuggling ring. Although," he paused, looking around at the peeling paint and cracked seats "if they knew where you spend your time they might reconsider."

"Well," Quill gave a short, terse smile "it's a damn sight more humble than a monolithic temple. I never could stand that place. All that carved marble and expensive carpeting." he stuck out his tongue in mock disgust. "I prefer it down here, on the ground."

"At least you're keeping your Padawan away from danger." Qui-Gon shrugged, spotting an Ithorian belching a Jakku Spritzer out of his nose in a fit of laughter. "And bad taste…" he added, his eyebrows raised.

At that exact moment, feminine hands placed a pair of drinks down on the table between the two men. Quillian winced. She wasn't in her robes, but Qui-Gon recognised her. A petite human girl, not a month past twenty, wearing a single delicate braid of her platinum blonde hair and a flushed expression of excitement on her sweet, angular face. "Master," the girl gushed to Quillian over the table, her voice excited "I think I overheard something at the bar-" she stopped, spotting Jinn sitting with Quill in the alcove. "Master Qui-Gon." she nodded respectfully.

"Sentina." Qui-Gon nodded back, his smile even warmer. Quill noticed him raise an eyebrow at her outfit, and was glad Jinn decided not to comment. He was even more glad, however, that Qui-Gon had also chosen not to comment on how long her Padawan braid was.

"Are you here to help with the mission?" Sentina asked, her enthusiasm apparent.

"No." Qui-Gon answered. "I'm here to give you a new one."

The bowels of Coruscant were not a pretty place. But Quillian knew every corner of the surrounding city, from the dumping grounds to the runoff gutter, and the water reservoir just around the corner from the dive bar. It was a large square tank, surrounded by a hive of piping, silos and droids maintaining it all. It was not a pretty place. But in the early hours, the square mile of water caught the reflection of the Ion Lights that lit up the night sky, and would shimmer in undulating blues and greens until the first rays of morning light began to creep over the horizon. Quill stood there, with Qui-Gon and Sentina, having lead them away from the bar not ten minutes ago. This was a much more scenic place for a civilised conversation. And much quieter.

"Master Johran hasn't returned." Qui-Gon said flatly.

Quillian felt a lump develop instantly in his throat. He was thankful for the briskness of Qui-Gon's delivery, the knowledge his old master had not reported back when expected had few innocent explanations. Sentina saw her master's face drop, searching it for an explanation. Looking to Qui-Gon, he only offered a knowing look, and no more.

"That's-" Sentina began, words catching in her throat. "I mean, I never knew him, but it's possible he just got delayed, isn't it?" she asked, eyes flitting between Qui-Gon and her own master.

"Not with the nature of his last mission, Padawan, no." Qui-Gon answered her. He allowed a pause, an offer for Quillian to explain personally. Gripping the railing that overlooked the reservoir, Quillian composed himself.

"Master Johran journeyed to a distant and isolated place." Quill began to explain. "Perhaps the most isolated in the galaxy. _Gatorum._ " Quill said, looking dead in Sentina's eyes, his voice heavy with the word. "His arrival there was only possible during a small window due to the planet's orbit, as was his departure, when his mission was to be completed. That was…?"

"He arrived three years ago." Qui-Gon answered. "He was expected back two days ago. But there has been no sign. No Johran, no signal, no message, no sign. We sent Jedi to the sister planet and find out if he made landfall. The vessel arrived from Gatorum, right on schedule. Johran was not on it."

"Sister planet?" Sentina asked, on reflex. Quillian seemed to drift, his gaze moving out over the shimmering water.

"Gatora and Gatorum," Qui-Gon explained patiently "are twin planets in the Sullust system. They share a binary orbit, they circle one another. Gatorum is surrounded by a debris field, it prevents any ship from landing there, but natives on the other planet, Gatora, have a way of travelling to it, when the orbit is right. That's only possible every three years, and Master Johran was supposed to have returned during this current window. He has not. We can only assume something bad has happened to him."

"He could still make it through in time, right?" Sentina asked innocently.

"No." Qui-Gon answered. "The window is only five days long, and never has more than one vessel ever travelled between planets during that time." Quillian gripped the railing tighter still as Qui-Gon spoke. Sentina was not used to him being this quiet, and found she was not comfortable with it. A heavy silence hung in the air, save the sound of passing trade and the occasional distant cat-call.

"What am I missing here?" Sentina asked, her eyes narrowing, searching for clues in the two Jedi's faces.

"If I decide to find him, I have to be there within the next two days." Quill answered quietly, carefully. "And if I do, I can't return for another three years." Silence sat heavily between the three of them. Sentina mulled over her throughs, her birdlike face tweaking with almost childish curiosity.

"Don't you mean we?" she asked finally.

Qui-Gon couldn't help but smile. Quillian caught the smile, and moved between the two, the sea of light now at his back, eager to dampen the Jedi's enthusiasm. "Qui-Gon, she's taking the Trials next month." Quill explained. "She comes with me, she'll be a Padawan for another three years."

"She can speak for herself, thank you very much." Sentina interjected, drawing Quill's attention back to her.

Quillian held her gaze, and remained stone-faced. "Three years, Sentina." Quillian said, shortening the distance between them, his voice soothing, his hands moving up to hold her shoulders. "Three more years until Knighthood. Three more years until you're a Jedi. Don't give that up just for me. Johran was _my_ master."

"But I'm _your_ Padawan." Sentina said simply. "And you're _my_ master." Quillian failed to withhold a smile.

"This is your choice, Sentina." Qui-Gon said, folding his robed arms in front of him. "This isn't an order than can be given. You have to make this decision."

Sentina puckered her lips. Quillian knew the expression well. It's one she picked up from him. "I get to learn from Quill for three more years?" Sentina asked, her naivete false, gently mocking. Qui-Gon let out a short, amused laugh, and with that Sentina allowed her face to drop into resolute confidence. "I'm going." she said.


	2. Chapter Two - The Ascent

**Chapter Two**

 **The Ascent**

The transport had been rattling like a coin in a cup since takeoff, but as they passed into the Sullust system it worsened. A smattering sound of tiny impacts echoed through the hull into the cargo storage like hail on a speeder's roof. It was as if Gatora was warning them to stay away the closer they got. Sentina wasn't used to such a bumpy ride. That's the smuggler's life for you, she thought. Quill was better suited to life on a junker's craft. He wasn't even surprised when they walked through the loading doors into the ship's huge cargo area to find a seat amongst fastened down crates, bikes and speeders.

Without even thinking about it, he led Sentina into the gap between a tower of crates and the shell of a disused starfighter, sinking to the floor and wrapping his arm around one of the securing tethers to make sure he didn't slide across the deck when they took off. His apprentice had followed suit without even saying a word. Their preparation had been rushed, manic. Quill had researched the native dress on Gatora, and dressed them both up appropriately.

Their outfits consisted of simple bandages, wound around the torso and limbs to cover the whole body. Their chests, forearms and shins were bound thickest, and they'd also constructed a loose shawl to pull up over their faces when they made planetfall. Both had constructed a heavy cape into their attire, for warmth. Sentina's flowed over her shoulders and down her back, Quill's slung sideways over his sword arm, to best hide it. Sentina had followed her master's lead and stayed silent aboard the ship, seldom making eye contact with any other passengers as they found similar corners to hunker down in amidst the field of cargo.

"You thought I was going to pass the Trials next month, didn't you?" Sentina asked abruptly.

Quill shook himself out of his own thoughts. Hours must have passed since they exchanged a word. "What?" he asked, not answering.

"You talked as if me missing the Trials was a loss." she continued. "Like if I hadn't come, I'd have passed them."

Quill allowed a moment of silence, and reached out a hand to hold Sentina's arm, sharing his warmth. "I have utmost faith in two things. The Living Force. And you."

Sentina felt tears welling up behind her eyes, instantly reasserting her control to push them back. "I wish I'd given you a reason. To have that faith."

"You were five years old when I met you." Quill said in a hushed whisper. "This bright-eyed little child, stepping out in front of the other younglings. You-" Quill cut off his own words with a burst of laughter, cupping a hand over his mouth to soften the echo of it around them. "You were so nervous you dropped your lightsaber." he continued, Sen now lighting up in deep, embarrassed chuckles. "But you picked it back up, you did your drills..."

"I tried." Sentina chuckled.

"You were so nervous, just shaking everywhere…" Quill mimed Sen's trembling arms holding an imaginary saber "...you weren't the best. Not the most powerful." Sen's laughter died down, and she listened with growing intent. "I don't know what you had. But none of the others had it."

A pregnant pause grew and hung heavy in the air between the two. Sentina suddenly felt how close they were in that tight space, and ran the tip of her tongue over her lips before pursuing them tightly and break eye contact with her master. A flurry of words came to the forefront of her mind but she let none of them slip, deciding on silence. After a moment or two, she looked back to Quill and realised he was still looking at her.

"I've never really…" Sen began, grasping at words "I've never really said-"

"Attachment is forbidden." Quill cut her off. His abruptness cut her deeply. "If you've never said it, then it shouldn't be said." he said flatly, turning his gaze ahead, tunnel visioned. Sen looked away, desperately trying to marshal herself. Quill felt the silence, and found his head turning back towards his apprentice. "Or doesn't need to be." Sen hesitantly caught his eye, then his smile, and couldn't help but share in it. "Now don't get all emotional just because we're heading into danger." Quill continued, relaxing his guardedness. "Calm your mind. Resume your focus. You'll need it." he added weightily.

"We've made it through worse." Sen said, forcing a nonchalant laugh. It wasn't convincing.

"When we arrive on the planet…" Quill began, "...we're stepping into extreme danger." Sen shifted in her spot, hardening her features, listening. "Most of the natives have never ever heard of Jedi, let alone seen one. As far as we know." Quill added, his thoughts turning momentarily to his old master, before snapping them back again. "Strangers represent mistrust. Our very presence will be antagonistic."

"What's the native species?" Sen asked.

"That's better." Quill encouraged with a wink. "There may be a few Sullustan migrants from the capital planet of the system, but the native species are called The Vonum." Quill stated, his voice low, hard. "Humanoid. Chalk white skin. Serpentine noses. They populate the twin planets, migrating back and forth every other generation. Humans will be entirely alien to them."

"Well if any of them have seen Master Johran, at least it'll stick in their minds." Sen commented absently. Quill smiled softly with pride. Sen's brow furrowed, suddenly curious. "Why did Master Johran travel to Gatorum in the first place?" she asked. "What was his mission?"

Quill let out a long sigh. "There exists a myth. So ancient no one knows where it came from, or how much truth there is to it. Thousands of years ago, the Sith totalled thousands. One of these was Darth Karnus. By reputation, an eerily calm man. Eccentric. Empathetic even, some say. A contradiction. At some point, as the legend goes, he became disenchanted by the Sith, by their indulgence, their arrogance, their indiscriminate anger. And so he sought exile. He found a planet, so isolated that none could follow him, and he could never leave. Rumours abound about the life he lived there. Some speculate he built a house, farmed vegetables and died an old man. Other think he built a sprawling Sith city, or that he enslaved the natives and created, to his mind, a true Sith society. Or of course that he built an army, plotting an invasion of the galaxy."

"Doesn't really hold together if you ask me." Sen said with a half shrug.

"Certainly not." Quill responded. "But there's always a bit of truth in legends." he conceded with a wry smile. "The Council wanted to know how much. If there truly was a threat it's best we know, but more realistically, if there is anything to learn about the ancient Sith, it's worth discovering. At the very least, Johran could return with reams of data about a mysterious planet for the archives."

"Are we expected to carry that mission out too?" Sen asked.

"We're out to find Master Johran." Quill answered. "But if-" Quill paused, struggling to vocalise the possibility. "If we can't bring Johran back then…" he drifted off, shrugging his shoulder "...well three years is a long time to do nothing. I can think of worse things to do than catalogue a new planet." Sentina smiled, nodded, but said nothing. "Not as thrilling as you'd hoped?" Quill asked, the hint of a tease.

"A Jedi doesn't crave thrills." Sentina quoted.

"You are not a Jedi yet." Quill reminded her.

A rough, cutting klaxon sounded throughout the bay. A garbled voice, roughened by static, let out a string of guttural language. Sentina recognised it as Mando'a, but failed to pick up any distinct words. Quill angled his head towards the sound, listening until a harsh buzz cut off the slew of words. He then stood, readjusting his outfit and pulling his bandaged shroud up over his mouth and nose. Sentina stood immediately, following suit.

"We're here." Quill said through the muffling cloth.

The entire ship shuddered harder, the chamber itself rattling as if caught in the wave of an earthquake. Quill handed Sentina a pair of flight goggles, strapping a pair over his own eyes, obscuring his features almost entirely, except for his shock of greying hair. Sentina pulled them on as the rattling escalated, and with a final lurch, the ship fell silent and still. Quill and Sen were almost thrown to the ground, each extending a hand to steady themselves. Frozen for a moment until certain the ship had stopped, Quill lead them both through the maze of cargo to stand in front of the colossal loading ramp.

A brassy horn began blaring intermittently, in sync with a set of red lights bordering the sheer wall of permasteel, and the entire ramp slowly began lowering itself with a blustering groan of the pistons. A crack of dim light appeared at the top, widening as the ramp descended until the entire bay was flooded with distant sunlight and the ramp struck the ground outside with a puff of ashen dirt. Quill and Sen stepped out onto the ramp, observing the terrain of Gatora.

It was a grey world, lit evenly with a persistent pallid light. Seas of grey volcanic rock extended to the horizon, rising infrequently into pyramidal mountains that Sentina soon realised were volcanoes. Unmoving rivers of pitchest black crawled out from the lip of each volcano, snaking across the ground like veins on a leaf. Each crater spewed out a stream of slow moving snow-white cloud that crept lazily up into the sky, casting a mirrored silhouette of shadow onto the ground below. Sen couldn't quite make out the sun through the ash coloured sky, not with the half dozen craters feeding the endless bank of white cloud above their heads.

The other passengers, each of a different height, size and smell, began seeping out of the maze of cargo at their backs, pushing by them without a glance and treading out onto the planet's surface, each finding their own way to their own destination. Sentina took a deep breath, and together with her master, stepped out onto the lifeless rock. Even through her bandages she caught the sickening smell of the atmosphere. Quill rounded the body of the massive ship and Sen followed, shocked to see a sign of life on the barren world.

A collection of makeshift huts, tents and an odd building or two were clumped together in front of the cargo ship, peppered with various crates and cargo between which moved groups of people, about a hundred or so from first glance. Several figures jogged over from the camp to receive the pilot of their ship, others running over to begin unpacking the cargo in which the two Jedi had made their home for the duration of the journey. Making their way over to the bustling waystation Sentina began to pick up various craft in landing areas all around the habitat. None were as big as the transport they flew in on, a few tugs, a couple of one-man fighters and one ship Sentina struggled to identify.

Quill lead Sentina through the bustle of the station, passing more species between the ramshackle buildings and under cloth canopies waving in the sulphur breeze. Sen was grateful when hit with the smell of food, rolling over her like a wave moments before they passed a line of stalls, a few of which hosted metal pans in which sizzled unidentified meat. They paused for a moment as Quill began trading with a food vendor, during which Sen took the opportunity to survey the controlled chaos around her.

It had the atmosphere of a market, the alien languages entirely unknown to her, still familiar with the rhythm and urgency of pressured bartering. So many of the species were unrecognisable to Sentina. She couldn't detect a single human. She spotted a couple of Ithorians, one of which had, in place of his right eye stalk, a gnarled clot of scar tissue. A grey Wookie sat on a stool as one vendor, with great strength, attempted to unknot his badly matted coat. A group of Sullustans gathered around a glass vase, handing a spout to each other and drawing deep breaths from it before exhaling a cloud of heavy smoke, their wet black eyes rolling in their heads in time with their cackling.

Squeezing her shoulder, Quill drew her attention back to him, and she saw that he'd filled two packs with dried food preserves. He handed one to her silently, which she slung over her back, following him through the market. She took the assumption that speaking Galactic Basic was an unwise move. Sticking close to her master's back, enduring a flurry of shoulder barges from passing residents, the two walked out into an open area, able to breathe again. Quill stopped, his attention utterly fixated on something.

Turning to look, Sentina saw an ominous sight. The ground dropped out before them into a gentle valley of grey rock, creeping all the way to the horizon, in the middle of which sat a short, squat volcano. Even at the great distance of several miles, it looked monolithic. Unlike the others, sitting in the crater was a great oval orb, like an egg in a cup, lines of white smoke trailing out of the spare gaps between the crater's edge and the gigantic orb. Quill turned to her with a sharp look. Neither talked, but Sen realised she was looking at their next means of transport. And I thought the cargo ship looked unsafe, she thought to herself.

Quill and Sen marched through the valley, black ash like sand crunching beneath their feet as they headed towards the crater. Sen looked momentarily over her shoulder, a line of their footprints snaking back across the ash and up the slope to the trading post, shrinking more and more into the distance as they made their way forward. Hesitantly, Sentina turned her gaze back to the volcano and the gargantuan orb sitting atop it. Sentina eyed it suspiciously as they made their way towards it. The oval monolith gave off an eerie aura, seemingly brown in the dim light, and yet catching it in patches like dull metal. As they approached it seemed more like dirty bronze, its surface occasionally catching the dim sun with a spectrum of colour, like the surface of an oil slick.

"What in the galaxy is that thing?" Sentina asked finally.

"That is how these people travel to the sister planet, Gatorum." Quill answered. "For thousands of years, they've mined that ore, unique to this planet. It's pliable in certain temperatures, but fiercely strong under stress, so they mould it into a vessel, like that, pile in, seal it up and… ride it." Quill said with a palatable sense of dread.

"We're getting in that thing?!" Sentina shot back, her immediately panicked.

"Yes." Quill answered, as if trying to convince himself. "Once set, the seal is solid. It survives the cold of space, the heat of reentry, keeps the oxygen in."

"This is madness." Sen retorted, her legs turning weak.

"This has been done thousands of times over thousands of years. Don't be so quick to disregard the work of an entire culture, even if it is alien to you."

"How does it even… take off?"

"I've told you." Quill reminded her. "The three year cycle? Today is the one day in three solar rotations that this volcano erupts and the orbit of both planets bring them close enough for transit. The eruption throws the vessel up past the stratosphere, it gets caught in Gatorum's gravity and pulls it down onto the surface."

"You mean _us_." Sen reminded him.

Quill's footfalls in the ashen ground stopped, and he turned to Sentina. He rummaged around in the folds of his bandages and pulled out a small device, a Hush-98 Comlink. Sentina looked at it, uncertain.

"It's your choice." Quill said softly, sympathetically. "I told you that on Coruscant. You still have that choice now." Sentina shifted her feet in the black dirt, her eyes fixed on the Comlink. "You can contact Qui-Gon with this. Any member of the Jedi Order. If you want them to come and retrieve you, they will." Sentina did not move. Her mouth dried immediately, her breathing shallow, mind racing. "This is something I have to do." Quill admitted, hanging his head. "I have an obligation to the man, Johran was my master."

"And you're mine." Sentina responded simply, finally locking eyes with Quill.

Quill smiled with subtle pride. The two stood, sharing a look, and without a word, Quill tucked the communicator back in his robes. With little more than a resilient nod, master and student turned back towards the monolithic crater and set off towards it. A line of humanoids gathered around a fissure in the titanic rock, slowly streaming in, all wearing the same bandaged clothing

Quill and Sen had wrapped themselves up in.

The Jedi reached the base of the crater and began ascending. Sen could now make out the various crates and equipment also being carried into the orb, some cages squirming with fleshy tentacles, presumably food, racks of blaster rifles and crates of pistols held between straining arms or slung over shoulders, all taking the journey with them.

"They have blasters?" Sen whispered through her bandaged face, turning to her master.

"By all accounts, they're not particularly advanced." Quill whispered back. "But they trade for everything. Food, weapons, medicine, everything."

Sentina felt a squirming in her guts, a sense of dread that fell and sat heavy in her stomach. "I've got a great feeling about this." Sen sighed, her words dripping with sarcasm. Quill said nothing, offer no consolation or denial.

Joining the stream of people, Quill led Sen in through the crowd of Vonum. Sen's shoulders tensed up. The hum of the bodies around her grew claustrophobic. Her eyes flitted behind her goggles, trying to make out the faces beneath the wrapped bandages. She heard hawkish, sharp words in a language she didn't understand, shot back and forth across the crowd, aggressive, tense. Occasionally she caught a glimpse of white, pallid skin through gaps in loose bandages, the hint of dark black veins pulsing beneath the colourless flesh.

Quill pulled them through the throng of people, amongst calls, cries and the clattering of weapons, finally reaching the black, jagged crack in the metallic body of the monolith, forming a doorway of sorts. Grasping each jagged edge of the fissure, Quill pulled himself through the gap and, with a deep breath, Sen followed him through. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, Sentina realised that the interior of the monolith was lit by a glowing yellow aura. Thin seams of crystalline rock grew like arteries across the interior walls, giving off a soft glowing light. Looking around, the interior of the orb felt a lot like a cave.

It was vast, cavernous, the walls jagged and broken, jutting boulders of rock crowding the space around them, most of which were being used as makeshift seats, surfaces and hollows in which dozens of humanoid Vonum now sat. It had the atmosphere of a shelter from a terrible storm. Quill and Sen made their way through the jagged terrain and found a comfortable hollow in the rock, haloed by the yellowed glow. Sitting in the narrow alcove, Quill patted himself down thoroughly, making sure he still had his Comlink, supplies, food and finally, his lightsaber, tethered securely in the small of his back.

Sen followed suit, feeling her lightsaber slung at the back of her waist, making sure it couldn't be seen by any of the Vonum. Scouting her eyes around the cavern she saw the humanoids busied with their own supplies, finding crevices to secure both themselves and their goods in for the journey. A terrible crack echoed loudly through the cave, making both Quill and Sen jump violently. Finding the source of the sound, the Jedi watched a particularly lanky Vonum pulling a thick net over a stack of crates and, with a clunky, rusted tool, firing stakes into the rock, tethering the net securely to the ground. Quill sighed with relief, glimpsing his apprentice for a moment, their suddenly fear ebbing again. Sentina retained her calm veneer, leaning in close to whisper in Quillian's ear.

"We couldn't have just taken a freighter?" she hissed with venom. "Any old junker. Wooden box would do."

"Gatorum isn't just surrounded by a debris field." Quill whispered back. "It's some kind of nebula. A sea of reactive particulates. Starship drives pull in and jettison ion particles in order to travel through space. A single ion particle enters that nebula-" Another loud crack echoed through the cavern, making both Quill and Sen jump. Quillian sighed, nodding towards the source of the sound. "Pretty much that. Instantaneous particulate reaction. Atomises the ship. Any ship. But this?" he swung his finger, gesturing around the cave. "This makes it through. But only this. Only here. And only today."

The entire cavern was now full of the humanoid creatures, the fissure they had entered through now empty, only a silhouette of light creeping in from outside. Sentina watched it, savouring it. With an echoing bang, the last of the cargo had been netted down, and a group of Vonum approached the entrance fissure. One leaned out its head, calling to the others outside. Pulling himself back inside, the group heaved a great metal sheet off the ground, levering it upside against the fissure, blocking it off.

With half a dozen of the creatures holding the metal sheet against the fissure, each took out a primitive hammer and began hammering away at the sheet. Only after a few minutes did Sentina realise they were moulding it against the jagged wall. When the hammering stopped, then came another guttural call, and as if from nowhere, smoke and the sound of hissing steam poured through the remaining gaps between the sheet and the wall. The Vonum held the metal against the rock with the flats of their hammers, turning their faces away from the searing metal.

"They're sealing up the entrance from the other side." Quillian whispered in Sen's ear. He was standing immediately behind her, also watching. "The ore cools quickly in place, they apply another layer and that's it. We're airtight."

"I hope these people aren't heavy breathers." Sentina half-joked, realising her own breath was quickening, her heart beating faster. "If I wanted to run right now," she asked with a whisper over her shoulder "could I even get out?"

"Well…" Quill said slowly, indulging Sen's rhetoric "...you could get out your lightsaber. Cut a hole in the wall, escape through that."

"And that would work?" Sen asked, the nerves wavering her voice.

"If you could outrun all of these people, yes." Quill said dryly. Sen let out a quiet, breathless laugh. She felt the tension alleviate a fraction. "Sit down, catch your breath. It's a waiting game now." Quill reassured her, squeezing Sen's shoulder. "Lava has been trickling into this volcano's reservoir for the last three years, the heat has been rising, and now we're sitting in a rock plugging that hole, the pressure's been rising too. When it erupts we're a bolt out of a blaster."

Quillian settled down into a sitting position within the alcove they'd picked out, trying to get comfortable. Sentina followed, and stood over him, giving the chamber one final look over. Her hand rested against the cavern wall, thumb tapping anxiously against the rock. "Everything tethered down?" she asked. Quill nodded.

"Yeah."

"So what's tethering us down?" Sentina asked.

Quill shrugged.

It could have been hours or days until Sentina and Quill felt the earthquake. At least Sen had assumed it was an earthquake. In reality, the bubbling volcano below the gargantuan vessel peaked in pressure. The underground lakes of coursing lava surged, rattling the crust's rock for hundreds of miles around. The seal applied and set around the lip of the volcano began to strain, the vessel shuddering like a hound in the slips.

Inside the rattling was savage. Quillian and Sen gripped the rock around them with desperation as the entire cavern juddered ferociously. The Vonum around them rattled like sand in a pan, they faces calm, even bored as they bumped up and down painfully on the bare stone. After a moment or two, the natives, quite casually, brought their legs up, bracing them against the wall of rock. Quill and Sen quickly followed suit, pushing their soles up against whatever purchase they could find, bracing their entire bodies as firmly as they could.

Quill craned his neck back to catch Sen's attention. "Use the Force, Sen."

Sen nodded, closing her eyes. Peering through the haze of noise, the violent shuddering, she found her inner calm. She collected her power from the Living Force, drawing in the cool, calming energy and encircling herself in its protective energies. Quill had already drawn the bubble of energy around himself, and both Force-users now sat in their respective Force shields, calmly awaiting the volcanic eruption beneath them. Not safe, but safer.

With a violent jerk, the volcano erupted. The seal around the monolithic vessel gave way, cracking into pieces that were instantly vaporised by the tower of fire shooting into the sky, flinging the orb up into the stratosphere. Inside, every being braced against the jolt, most keeping their footing, a few flung up a couple of feet before crashing back to the ground. Quill and Sen held fast, anchored to the ground, their focus rooting them to the spot. After the initial impact, gravity doubled. Sen tried to resist a gasp as she was pulled harder and harder downwards. Both her and Quill felt like they suddenly weighed a ton.

The monolith, sitting atop the cataclysmic eruption, was like a pebble atop a jet of water. The tower of lava reached up into the clouds, its very heat dispersing them. Reaching the height of its arc, the magam slowed, stopped, and began to fall. Resident Vonum watched from the trading post, and despite being miles away, felt the violence of the shock and the wave of heat washing over them. The bank of cloud surrounding the column of fire dissipated to reveal a dark blue sky behind them, the magma cooling on its great descent, raining chunks of obsidian onto the ashen ground as thick lava oozed from the crater's lip, crawling downhill like red honey.

Rocketing up into the mesosphere the vessel slowed, passing its final barrier at the top of its arc, leaving the bonds of gravity behind. As if released from a tether, the orb drifted peacefully away from the planet, crawling at a steady pace away from Gatora. Inside, the violent shuddering instantly gave way to a sickening silence. Sen opened her eyes, arms and legs still braced against the rock. She loosened her focus and the invisible energy shield around her dissipated. Only when she saw a Vonum toddler drifting up into the air, giggling with delight, did she realise gravity had vanished.

She loosened her muscles, letting go of the rock and began floating, weightless in the great expansive chamber. Beneath her bindings, a smile grew. A thin Vonum arm reached up to grab the floating child's leg, and the mother pulled him back towards her, clinging onto the rock and cradling the child in her arms. Catching the mother's unsettling yellow eye, Sentina stifled her own smile. Quill's arm reached out, and Sentina felt his hand, warm and gentle, on her chest, pulling her back down to the floor of the alcove.

Sentina grasped the rock again, and noted the tense, fearful faces of the Vonum around the chamber. She leaned in to Quill's ear, whispering. "Jolly bunch, aren't they?" she asked sarcastically.

"They know what's coming." Quillian whispered back. "Landing's a dangerous process. If we're lucky we'll have to swim out."

"If we're lucky?" Sentina hissed back, desperately restraining her voice.

"You'd prefer us to crash onto solid rock?" Quillian asked softly. Sen's tongue caught in her own throat. "Don't worry." Quillian reassured her. "The position of the planets are the same every cycle. We're due to come down over the coast. You'll be fine." Sen hummed in response, unconvinced.

"Sounds like a good reason to enjoy yourself while you can." Sen muttered absently.

"For them maybe." Quillian responded. Sentina listened closer. "Once all these people make landfall they're safe. For us, that's when things get dangerous."

Sentina swallowed her fear down over the lump in her throat and guarded herself anew for whatever danger may come. She expected a far longer reprieve than she got. Less than an hour, in fact. At first the weightlessness began to ebb slowly. Sen and Quill began to feel the slightest pull from their left side, and as the cavern began to rattle again they felt their weight increase. Soon the rattling grew to a bone-shaking frequency, and the temperature within the cavern rose quickly.

Sentina felt sweat bead under her bandages that began to roll down her forehead, the pull of gravity beginning to roll around and around in every direction, getting stronger and faster as the shaking reached fever pitch. Sen and Quill reasserted their control, focusing the Force around them again and rooting their bodies to the rock. Sen's limbs felt like lead. The contents of her stomach rolled around inside her belly and she tensed her abdomen, suppressing the need to throw up.

The heat inside the vessel grew sweltering, claustrophobic. Every intake of breath warmed the inside of Sen's chest, and with a grimace, she held each burning lungful for as long as she could without taking another. Outside the sealed atmosphere of the cavern, the crust of the monolithic vessel grew a halo of flame as it sunk below the crest of Gatorum's atmosphere. The orb tumbled, wreathed in fire, parting the clouds as it hurtled towards the planet's surface.

Desperate for a reprieve from the infernal rattling, Sentina had her wish granted. The vessel struck the surface of the ocean with an almighty crash. Sen and Quill, along with a dozen other Vonum, were thrown across the cavern, towards the furthest stone wall. Curling up instinctively Quill slowed himself, extending the Force with an outstretched hand to cushion Sentina from the impact. But too late.

They hit the rock face, softened only marginally by Quill's venerable power, a wildfire of pain erupting across the shoulders, arms and legs that bit into the rock. The Vonum barely let out a scream as they struck rock, and the bodies of their friends and family. The Jedi were lucky. Under the oppressive sound of impacting ore against undulating water, Sen heard the cracking of bone, thudding of tenderised flesh, and a yelp or two cut suddenly short.

The orb sent up a tower of water as it struck the black ocean, atomising into mist that obscured the faint sun, casting the lightest of rainbows across the grim landscape. The white hot surface of the vessel cooled instantly as it plunged beneath the water's surface, the metallic ore shrinking and warping, sending a groaning sound throughout the cavern inside, quieting the gasps and moans as Sen and Quill scrambled out of the mound of bodies around them. Finding her footing on a jutting mound of rock, Sen freed herself from the body pile and extended a hand down to help others out from under each other.

Quill pulled himself up and, seeing his apprentice helping others to their feet, felt a swell of pride. He hooked an arm under that of a Vonum writhing next to him, and brought her to her feet. The Vonum recovered slowly, pulling themselves up to standing height, cradling their children and loved ones. Only when they began to climb free of the throng of bodies did Sentina see the corpses littering the floor. Two, perhaps three dozen, she guessed, a grim feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.

Quickly identifying their dead, the Vonum left them where they lay, moving on swiftly to the crates of cargo hanging precariously from their tethers now situated on the cavern walls. They clambered up the sheer rock with their spidery white limbs, hooking themselves into the netting. Quill and Sen found each other amongst the busy crowd. Sen's breath was quick, her heart fluttering. Her foot caught on something as she walked. Looking down, she saw it was the corpse of an elderly Vonum, deathly still, unbreathing.

Sentina felt a well of horror rising in her chest, her breath shaking like a leaf in the breeze. Sensing this, Quill placed a comforting hand on her forearm. None of the Vonum saw. Quill made sure of it. He wasn't as prepared for the shock as he had thought he was, but he steeled himself, determined not to show it. Looking up, they saw a group of Vonum scaling the rock right to the top of the cavern, directly above them. They clung to the rock like insects, Sentina found it deeply unnerving. Those gathered about the nets of cargo fastened rope around their waists and cut the cables holding the crates.

They clattered to the ground with a racket, and Sentina now made out a long line of rope spooled around them, the other end tied to the Vonum gripping the walls of the cave. Those gripping the rock directly above them began hammering away at the quickly cooled and brittle ore, raining a mist of metallic splinters onto the ground, and people standing there.

"Brace yourself." Quill whispered.

"There's more?" Sen shot back with a hiss. "What next?"

"Prepare to swim."

And with a decisive knell, the Vonum's hammer struck the brittle ore and it shattered, a jet of colourless water streaming down with torrential force, quickly filling the chamber, flooding the couple of hundred beings within, along with the two Jedi.


End file.
